Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary is a complex love letter to original game

Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary brings the original game back to life with …

"This is our gift to the fans," the two men from 343 Industries said. We're sitting in a small room set aside from a larger Microsoft event at E3, and we're about to take a look at Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, a game that sets out to take the now-classic Halo title and update the graphics for the modern day. I was able to watch one of the developers play the game in front of me, and while you can still tell that the title is based on an aging game, the updated engine goes a long way toward making the game look closer to the graphical fidelity we're used to in games.

What's fascinating about this update is that there are actually two layers of code running at any given time, and you can switch between them at will.

The classic must be preserved

It was important to everyone involved that the game feel like the original Halo, and the only way this was possible was to keep the original code. There was then another layer added on top of that code, a proprietary engine that adds modern effects and textures to the game. In an amazing twist, you can hit a button at any time and switch between the updated graphics and the game's original look. The difference is striking, and it's impressive how far graphics have come in the last decade.

Just in case you thought the graphics were the only aspect of the game being updated, the score was also re-recorded at Skywalker Ranch.

The ability to play with the old graphics used to be what the developers described as a "pet feature," a menu item that you could toggle on and off at the beginning of your session. They quickly fell in love with the feature, and wanted to give players complete control over which graphical style they played with. I watched as a Warthog was driven through the water in the old style with very little in the way of details, and then the new graphics were turned on and I could see the water churn.

Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary

The game also updates the terminal system, the text-based method the game used to explore the backstory of the world. Now the terminals are much easier to find, and feature a stylized, graphical story that tells the tale of the Halo, and how Guilty Spark found himself there. It's an interesting way to flesh out the game's backstory, and the only way you'll be able to experience it is to play this new game. "This isn't just a weapon, it's my home," Guilty Spark tells the player, describing the Halo structure. The graphics in the new story-based terminal segments feel almost like a breathing comic book, and what little of the story we saw was conveyed very well. If you're a hardcore Halo fan, this is going to be a nice bonus to replaying the original campaign.

The game will come with seven classic multiplayer maps, but those will play using the Reach engine, and in fact the game will come with a code allowing you to download the maps and add them to the map list when you play Halo: Reach. When asked whether or not there will be a way to play these maps with the original weapons and with the gameplay of the original games, everyone in the room grew coy. "We want to respect the classic game, and there are many ways to do that," we were told, and then promised more details of the different online options will be shared at a later date.

Halo: Combat Evolved looks and feels different than the modern games

The first Halo plays very differently than the modern games, and that feel is kept in the Anniversary edition of the game. The magnum is a very powerful gun in the original release, and it was pointed out how good it's going to feel to go back to that weapon to wipe out hordes of enemies. The backstory of Halo will be explored in a new way with the terminals, and the ability to play with the original graphics is another way of giving respect to the original release.

If you didn't like Halo, and lord knows people will sound off in the comments, you will continue to not like this. For those people who loved the original, this is going to be a window into the past, with graphics that are more than tolerable. Microsoft is clearly going to milk one of its most popular franchises, but at least the people helming this version of the game seem to have love and respect for the game they're bringing back from the dead.

It's a look back, sure, but sometimes that can be a very refreshing thing, especially when you can finally play the game with a friend over Xbox Live in co-op mode, not to mention earn achievements. Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary is coming on November 15 for the Xbox 360, and will retail for $40.

Microsoft, why no u support pc??!seriously though, Halo and Halo both came to pc, and the microsoft just stopped. I have a ton of fond memories of Halo on pc, and it would really great to play the updated version along with reach on pc. what the fuck microsoft! You guys actually make windows, its not like making a game for PS3!!!

Microsoft, why no u support pc??!seriously though, Halo and Halo both came to pc, and the microsoft just stopped. I have a ton of fond memories of Halo on pc, and it would really great to play the updated version along with reach on pc. what the fuck microsoft! You guys actually make windows, its not like making a game for PS3!!!

Agreed! I don't mind not being able to play 2 and 3, personally, but I have such fond memories of PC multiplayer on the first one that I would have bought this in a heartbeat.

Microsoft, why no u support pc??!seriously though, Halo and Halo both came to pc, and the microsoft just stopped. I have a ton of fond memories of Halo on pc, and it would really great to play the updated version along with reach on pc. what the fuck microsoft! You guys actually make windows, its not like making a game for PS3!!!

Agreed! I don't mind not being able to play 2 and 3, personally, but I have such fond memories of PC multiplayer on the first one that I would have bought this in a heartbeat.

now I miss sniping shenanigans on blood gulch. those were the days, before there were 2.7x10^9000 bots. now Halo CE on pc is pretty much hax 101

Worthless without a PC version. The original Halo came out on PC, the remake, this "gift to the fans", doesn't? Screw you Microsoft, this is why I can't support you at all, you not only favor one of your platforms over the other, which I understand, but you openly act to the detriment of the Windows platform for gaming. A 6 month xbox360 exclusive gives you all your previous xbox sales, then throw the PC gamers a bone, the people who use Windows to the exclusion of any other OS, and give 'em things like this.

Worthless without a PC version. The original Halo came out on PC, the remake, this "gift to the fans", doesn't? Screw you Microsoft, this is why I can't support you at all, you not only favor one of your platforms over the other, which I understand, but you openly act to the detriment of the Windows platform for gaming. A 6 month xbox360 exclusive gives you all your previous xbox sales, then throw the PC gamers a bone, the people who use Windows to the exclusion of any other OS, and give 'em things like this.

People (re: console peseants)* say piracy, but that not it. first of all, microsoft generally makes around $10+ more on each game for 360, second, there are less support issues because of perfectly consistent hardware, which also means less to no patching, and finally, porting game to another platform with the same api's is fucking hard, because remapping controls and recompiling code is SO hard and involves more the 15 mouse actions /sarcasm.

*disclaimer: the author of this post actually owns a 360, and enjoys left 4 dead 2 and halo reach co-op with friends all the time. he is just being a total elitist asshole right now to make a point.

In an amazing twist, you can hit a button at any time and switch between the updated graphics and the game's original look.

YES. I wish more people would do this with their re-releases.

I wonder what the original Star Wars trilogy looks like without all of the new computer enhanced special-scenes. I find it hard to remember exactly which effects are new, and the last copy of the original trilogy that I had was on laserdisc.

In an amazing twist, you can hit a button at any time and switch between the updated graphics and the game's original look.

YES. I wish more people would do this with their re-releases.

I wonder what the original Star Wars trilogy looks like without all of the new computer enhanced special-scenes. I find it hard to remember exactly which effects are new, and the last copy of the original trilogy that I had was on laserdisc.

1) Preferred playing the Halo series in single-player (Legendary mode was awesome)2) Preferred Halo 2 (single-player of course) to Halo 1 (Legendary mode in Halo 2 was a whole different beast than Legendary in Halo 1 - not only were the enemies tougher, they were smarter. In Halo 1, they were just tougher)

I never did get Halo 3 (for various reasons) but I really should do so and complete the story. My XBox 360 RRODed right after Halo 3 came out and so I ended up never getting it. Not sure if I'll pick this one up yet. Halo is nostalgic but at the same time doesn't have the nostalgia factor as some other games do.

*disclaimer: the author of this post actually owns a 360, and enjoys left 4 dead 2 and halo reach co-op with friends all the time. he is just being a total elitist asshole right now to make a point.

Sorry man but you're coming off as an elitist asshole on this one.\

but for $40 and the possability of it acting as a map pack for reach I can see me buying it again and getting into a bullfight or two against a hunter with a shotgun in hand. Last time I tried it was on ODST and wasn't quite as satisfying as I remembered. But boy the hours I put into the original was just too damn fun to pass this up without atleast a rental

I am hoping they throw a bunch of extra stuff into the campaign to make it fun. They have to include the original campaign of course (though I wouldn't mind if they left out The Library) but a remixed campaign would be awesome too. It would be interesting to be able to play as Master Chief with all the Reach weapons and armor abilities. Also be interesting to see the new enemies and vehicles included.

Any word yet on what the seven multiplayer maps are going to be? The original game had 13 but me and my friends mostly just played Blood Gulch, Hang Em High, Sidewinder, and Boarding Action (we liked sniper matches). Blood Gulch and Sidewinder are pretty obvious and I think you can see updated versions of Hang Em High and Damnation in the trailers.

2) Preferred Halo 2 (single-player of course) to Halo 1 (Legendary mode in Halo 2 was a whole different beast than Legendary in Halo 1 - not only were the enemies tougher, they were smarter. In Halo 1, they were just tougher)

I'm going to disagree with you there. They weren't smarter. They and their weapons were overpowered while Master Chief and his weapons were nerfed. Which is why any NPC can take multiple hits from a Jackal Sniper and still keep going, but the Master Chief dies instantly if one so much as clips his toenail with a beam rifle.

Not that it matters, because like you I never got around to Halo 3, as moving around the world a few times prevented me from ever getting an Xbox 360. Now I do all of my gaming on my laptop, so it's doubtful I'll ever get to play all of the Halo games, as much as I am a fan of the Halo universe.

the trailer doesn't do it justice how much better the new version looks than the older version. check out the screenshots or at the very least, an HD version of the trailer. it's not just higher resolution or new textures, but entirely new environmental models.

as for the pistol. man, the original Halo pistol was awesome... way too awesome that it had to be toned down. a pistol with a scope on it... that could take down a person way way way across the map with a headshot as if it was a sniper gun but could take down a guy faster than the assault rifle. good times...

I got Secret of Monkey Island (though haven't had time to get into it). It can be switched between classic and modern graphics at the touch of a button, but obviously Halo's version sounds like there was a tad more engineering skill went into it. I confess I never got Monkey Island back in the day so I don't have any memories of it, but the original graphics look awful!, worse than I thought they could. It will be interesting to compare them on Halo. The only thing that I didn't like about the original Halo's graphics was the faces and some of the character movement, which I don't think really improved much in Halo 3.

It'll be strange having to run for health packs.

How about a new X-Wing/TIE-Fighter on this principle? I loved TIE Fighter.

Worthless without a PC version. The original Halo came out on PC, the remake, this "gift to the fans", doesn't?

No surprise, though. MS bought Bungie to make Halo a (temporary) Xbox exclusive, even though it had originally been developed for Mac and Windows. (For a while, it even looked like the non-Xbox versions of Halo might get shelved completely.)

Even though Bungie had its roots in Mac development, Mac users were left out after the original Halo, and PC users didn't get anything after Halo 2, IIRC. MS clearly wants people to associate Halo with the Xbox platform just like Zelda is associated with Nintendo's devices.

I'm not saying it doesn't suck (I'm a Mac user, and I hated it, when Bungie got bought out, because it essentially eliminated one of the most important Mac game developers), but it is consistent with Microsoft's recent strategy for the Halo franchise.

Never played it and don't own an Xbox, but I'm glad this is happening - like Sony with the God of War HD remakes, it's a great way to be able to play games from unsupported hardware. Age doesn't stop an excellent game from being excellent (Good Old Games keeps proving this).Enjoy, Xbox owners - at least until MS pushes out a patch to make it Kinect controlled ~

I, for one, cannot wait to backtrack through those halls in high def. :-)

Indeed, as much as I enjoyed the first game, the seemingly endless corridors were not the most fun part.

Exactly. I mean, if they went to the trouble of updating the game, they could've done the work they didn't do ten years ago and actually *finished* the game. This is ridiculous. Halo had such potential and squandered it completely in its second half, it actually hurts to see this missed opportunity.No one would have missed that one hallway.

Worthless without a PC version. The original Halo came out on PC, the remake, this "gift to the fans", doesn't?

The original came out on PC two years later and it was ported by a 3rd party (a little taste of the pre-Steam Mac gaming experience for Windows users). For better or worse, Halo has been all about selling XBoxes since Microsoft acquired Bungie.

2. No firefight mode with customisable Covenant spawn positions....where the Elites are bounded to an area of the map.......and the Grunts are bounded to the neighbourhood of their Elite....(i.e. author your own Campaigns within the provided levels).

3. No deluxe armoury - it would be so easy to add the BR

4. No dual wielding - just support Bumper Jumper controls for gawd's sake.

5. No warthogs - the ones in Reach don't handle as gloriously as in either 1, 2, or 3.

6. No need for HD graphics - the original was perfectly ok....(you may as well revamp Pac-Man whilst you're at it /sarcasm)